MY STORY

The beginning :

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When I launched iLA, I has NO IDEA what I was doing.

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I had no investment. I was £30k in debt. And almost everyone around me told me it wouldn’t work. People laughed and said you couldn’t build a successful law firm specialising purely in Independent Legal Advice — that it was too niche, too risky, not “proper” enough.

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What they didn’t see was the vision I could feel in my body.

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That phase required a level of self-trust I’d never had to access before. I had to back myself without external validation. I had to make decisions while fear was loud and certainty didn’t exist yet. And I had to build something real — not just believe in it.

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So I did both.

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I built systems. Processes. Clear structures. I focused on execution instead of noise, and strategy instead of opinion. Somatically, I learned how to stay with discomfort without freezing or collapsing. Strategically, I created a model that could actually scale.

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In year one, we turned over £360k.
In year two, £1.26 million.

And since then, we’ve continued to turn over millions every year — with strong profit margins, not burnout economics. 

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That wasn’t luck.
That was belief and strategy working together.

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The (very messy) middle :

 

The second phase crept in quietly but really quickly. 

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As the business grew, so did the pressure — I became a work addict. I sacrificed everything at the expense of the business: love, joy, connection, intimacy, rest.

 

All I could do was work. I couldn’t switch off, and I didn’t even really know why anymore. I think maybe I was scared of losing it. 

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I had a growing business, but exhausted. 

Capable, but disconnected.
Driven, but no longer leading well. 

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I became short-tempered and reactive. I couldn’t see the bigger picture. I wanted to be involved in everything because letting go didn’t feel safe — and in hindsight, that need for control was stifling my own business growth.

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My boundaries were gone. My personal spending was chaotic. I was surviving inside the thing I’d built.

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This is the phase where so many founders lose themselves — not because they’re failing, but because they’re pushing through without capacity. 

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This is where somatic work stopped being optional. I had to relearn how to lead from my body, rebuild boundaries, and create space to actually think and see again. Strategically, I had to stop being the bottleneck and start building a business that didn’t rely on me being “on” all the time (there's shit loads of systems and process for this!)

And the later stage :

 

By the time I reached the third phase, I’d “made it” by most standards.

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I was taking home three to four times more per month than I’d ever imagined. The business was thriving. From the outside, it looked like everything I’d worked for.

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And yet I remember sitting at home (in Sandbanks!), crying to my partner, saying:

"I’ve become everything I didn’t want to be".

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I couldn’t enjoy my success. I was addicted to hustle. And it didn’t feel half as good as I thought it would. I didn’t know how to stop striving, and I didn’t know who I was without the constant push.

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I was terrified of becoming the person who “had it all” but lost themselves in the process.

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So I went deeper than ever before. Not surface-level mindset work — but embodied work that cut to the root of why I couldn’t rest, receive, or feel free. I worked with coaches. I did years of inner work — and this time, I let it change how I lived.

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That’s where joy came back.
Play.
Pleasure.
Freedom.

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And now, my life is genuinely fucking amazing — not because I stopped being ambitious, but because I learned how to hold success without it owning me.